Telecom companies seek repayment of Public Sector Undertakings’ dues

NEW DELHI: Apex telecom industry lobby Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Wednesday wrote to Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash seeking the urgent payment of State-run firms’ unpaid dues to telecom vendors. According to the letter, these Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) currently owe as much as Rs 20,000 crore for services tendered by telecom vendors. 

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) represents top telecom and network equipment manufacturers and service providers like Nokia, Huawei, Ericsson, ZTE, Sterlite, Indus, Cisco, Juniper, Qualcomm, Apple, Ciena, ECI, Facebook, Google, Amazon and ACT. 

“Most of our member companies in the Telecom & Network Equipment Manufacturers and Infrastructure Providers segment have been long-term partners of various PSUs including BSNL, MTNL, etc, and have been providing respective material, support and services to these PSUs for all their telecom requirements,” COAI director general Rajan Mathews wrote. 

With the Covid-19 pandemic impacting business continuity of these telecom companies and the severe disruption to global supply chains impacting cash flows, Mathews added that these vendors have nevertheless supported “various PSUs in delivering uninterrupted services, despite non-payment of their huge pending dues”. 

“The situation has become highly critical now with total outstanding dues from these PSUs amounting to about Rs 20,000 crore, which has been pending since long… this huge scale of delays and breach of contract commitments by PSUs is highly detrimental to global business sentiment towards India,” Mathews said, requesting “urgent intervention” to ensure the release of these dues.